A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State and immediate past Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Prince Paul Ikonne, has called on residents of the state to remain vigilant and consistently hold the administration of Governor Alex Otti accountable over what he described as persistent financial inconsistencies and lack of transparency.
The statement was signed by Enoch Chiagoziem, Media Aide to Prince Paul Ikonne.
Ikonne made the call while speaking on a monitored radio programme from Abuja, where he reacted to reports of ₦210 million allegedly included in the Abia State budget for the purchase of a photocopier. The state government has since described the figure as a typographical error.
Expressing shock over the development, Ikonne said it was troubling that an administration led by a governor with a background in banking and finance could repeatedly record such errors in official financial documents.
“This is exactly how Abia money is written off. If Abians had not paid attention and raised questions, this whopping sum would have quietly disappeared,” he said.
He questioned how a government that presents itself as technocratic could make what he termed costly mistakes, recalling a previous incident in which about ₦1.2 billion was reportedly described as a typographical error in relation to the purchase of Hilux vehicles.
The APC chieftain alleged that the current administration was “fast gaining notoriety for financial inconsistencies, padding, and attempts to siphon the common patrimony of Ndi Abia under the guise of errors.”
Ikonne also queried how ₦210 million and ₦12 million could be mistaken for each other, while expressing doubts about the cost of photocopying equipment. He argued that even large-scale business centres handling significant documentation do not operate machines of such high value.
He further raised concerns about the implementation of the already passed budget, asking how the alleged discrepancies would be reconciled. In addition, he questioned reported expenditures on major projects, including claims that about ₦100 billion had been spent on smart schools and ₦7 billion on a recreational centre, which he alleged were not commensurate with visible outcomes.
Efforts to obtain an official response from the Abia State Government were not immediately successful as of the time of filing this report.
